How to get iMessage, FaceTime working on your iPhone on Vodafone India

In the past few weeks, we have been receiving tips from our readers that for some Vodafone India subscribers iMessage and FaceTime isn’t working on their iPhone. Yes, we have heard it is working for most yet there are many users out there for whom the services aren’t getting activated. We tested it on a few Vodafone numbers and the issue does exist – the iMessage status reads awaiting activation. Mind you, even if your phone number doesn’t get activated, it might display activated as iMessage also works with all email addresses associated with your Apple id in case a phone number isn’t activated. Ditto for FaceTime. The easiest way to check it is to go to Settings > Messages and see the send and receive option to see if your number is activated or not. If you are a Vodafone subscriber in India and don’t have it activated on your number, read on to find out how to activate iMessage and FaceTime.

We reached out to Vodafone India for an official response to which the carrier told BGR India that there was no problem and iMessage works on their network. There is no doubt that iMessage works on Vodafone’s network but it isn’t getting activated for some users. For iMessage and FaceTime to work, the iPhone sends and activation. Apparently, for some users that message isn’t being sent.

Our source in Vodafone confirms that this is not an isolated incident and Vodafone is currently trying to fix the situation. The activation text is sent to a UK number, which is probably creating a problem.

The good news, however, is that users can manually activate iMessage and FaceTime on their Vodafone numbers by sending out a text message. If you are facing a problem activating it, send out “activate imessage” (without the quotes) to +445773142076. The go to Settings > Messages and turn iMessage off and on. That’s about it! We tried it on our Vodafone number and it works. Try it out and let us know if it works for you too.